WASHINGTON – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced updates to the naturalization civics test last Thursday, focusing questions on American values and principles. The move is part of the agency’s larger overhaul of American citizenship standards.
USCIS is implementing the changes to align with President Donald Trump’s January executive order titled “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats.” The order instructed the agency to recommend measures that “promote a unified American identity and attachment to the Constitution, laws, and founding principles of the United States.”
“By ensuring only those aliens who meet all eligibility requirements, including the ability to read, write, and speak English and understand U.S. government and civics, are able to naturalize, the American people can be assured that those joining us as fellow citizens are fully assimilated and will contribute to America’s greatness,” USCIS Spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser said in a statement.
The 2025 Naturalization Civics Test will reinstate the 2020 test, which was implemented during President Trump’s first term and abandoned for the 2008 version under former President Joe Biden’s administration. Currently, the 2008 test remains in place and will be used for those who apply for citizenship before October 20.
Changes to the test include expanding the question bank from 100 to 128 questions — retaining approximately 75 percent of the content, according to USCIS — and requiring applicants to correctly answer 12 out of 20 rather than 6 out of 10.
“I think anyone who’s familiar with the naturalization process would probably agree that the test needed to be updated. If you look at the 2008 version, you’ll see that there are very few questions about, for example, women,” said Merritt Groeschel, executive director of Solutions in Hometown Connections, a nonprofit organization that helps newly arrived families connect with their community. “This particular version was sort of hastily created in 2020, and some people do feel that some of the questions are worded in a very confusing way, and some of them ask about somewhat obscure things.”
Tragesser stated that the new test ensures American citizenship is reserved only for immigrants who fully embrace the country’s values and principles. The questions focus more on American history and governance, asking about the rationale behind certain rules rather than simply what those rules are.
Yet, according to a 2024 study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, 70% of Americans failed a basic civic literacy quiz on topics like the three branches of government, the number of Supreme Court justices and other basic functions of American democracy. Only half correctly named the branch of government where bills become laws, and only a quarter said they are “very confident” they could explain how the government works.
“Democracy is a team sport, and we all need to understand how our government works and is intended to work in order to participate in it,” said Hilary Crow, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s vice president of civics. “It’s just critical that we all understand what our rights and roles and responsibilities are. Without active civic engagement and participation, we see a decline in trust — not just in institutions, but in each other.”
